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Chassis
All
Lotus design, lightweight spaceframe of bonded anodized extruded aluminum
with integral roll over hoop, extruded aluminium impact absorbing structure
and steel galvanized rear subframe, manufactured by Hydro Aluminium
Automotive Structures a.s. Seating for two.
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Rear
suspension
Inverted
monotube damper, extruded upright, aluminium caliper
Rackham also says that the accuracy of construction and stiffness of the
chassis has allowed 'a very pure suspension set-up'. The Elise has double
wishbones at each end and to save money the system uses the same wishbone
bush and outer hall joint for all four converse The suspension is tuneable
like a racing car's and is designed to be dropped by 50mm with different
dampers.
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Front
suspension
with
inverted monotube damper, extruded upright, aluminium caliper
Independent by upper and lower wishbones, co-axial coil springs and inverted
monotube dampers.
Extruded aluminium uprights. Trailing toe-links on rear for compliance steer
control.
From Julian Thompson:
"The great thing about using extrusions is that it costs just a few
thousand pounds to make a die, so the whole chassis can he tooled up for a
fraction of the cost of just one conventional metal pressing. It also
allowed Lotus's engineers to design each beam so that it's the perfect shape
for the loads it needs to carry. The various beams are then 'harmonised'
using computer technology into one unit that is uniformly stiff all oven
This would be almost impossible with conventional materials."
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